Greetings readers, I am back! This time I am bringing you my thoughts to the table about the watch length of anime seasons and what I think of them. If you haven't already noticed most "modern" anime are made up of 12-13 episodes in total, while older anime tend to have a minimum of 26 episodes. Don't get me wrong, if an anime is super popular it gets renewed for another season which adds an additional 12-13 episodes onto its length, some examples are Tokyo Ghoul, and Knights of Sidonia. There are many pros and cons from having shorter and longer anime series for both the producer and the consumer, but I will stick strictly to the consumer for now.
The amount of time it takes to watch an anime, and the amount of time we set aside to watch anime, greatly reflects and changes how engaged we are with the show, and how much we will enjoy it. Shorter anime made up of 13 episodes (23 minutes per episode) takes roughly a total or 5 hours to watch, or 300 minutes. Longer anime made up of 26 or 52 episodes (23 minutes per episode) generally takes 10 to 20 hours to watch, or 600-1200 minutes. There is a huge gap in time between short and long anime, but which one is really better? If you only watch anime every once in a while, or don't have time to watch a few episodes of anime at a time, you would probably go with the shorter anime since you can complete series relatively quickly. If you watch anime frequently, or watch in blocks, the longer anime would probably suit your needs more than a shorter anime. When looking at time constraints only, the shorter anime series generally work best for people since it allows them to watch entire series relatively quickly and makes sure that the consumer isn't watching the same anime for 6 months straight.
Now we shall compare the long and short anime based on the quality of their content, and ability to create and maintain a captivating storyline. The shorter anime is roughly the same length as two movies, meaning that it can properly develop the characters while still having enough time to carry out a proper storyline and sequence of events. The longer anime can do go much deeper into character development, and contain a large quantity of events, or long lasting events. However the longer the show, the more likely it is for the consumer to lose interest, or for the storyline to drag on for an unneeded amount of time. To put it bluntly the shorter anime are generally well put together, and condense, designed to put the consumer through a single viewing experience. When the longer anime are meant to pull the consumer into a deep character plot, where you follow the characters through multiple events and see them change and develop based on their experiences.
When comparing the amount of time it takes to watch long and short anime, and the variety of strengths that each has, it is hard to decide a clear winner. What is really comes down to is personal preference, if you enjoy long story-rich plots you should watch longer anime, if you prefer shorter more focused storylines, you should watch shorter anime. However I will dub shorter anime series better than longer anime series simply because if there is a demand, the producers can always add another 13 episode block, you can't really beat that in my opinion.
Thanks for reading yet another one of my posts, and if you want to give your own thoughts about long vs. short anime, feel free to do so in the comments below. On a side note I have also decided that I will not be maintaining a posting schedule (although I will aim to continuously pump out posts), I will be posting more sporadically over a longer period of time. I simply don't want to commit to a posting schedule which I may be unable to uphold.
Have a wonderful day/night, and I hope you will stay tuned for the next post,
avirgintheory
